Rehabilitation After Ocular Trauma

Rehabilitation After Ocular Trauma

Rehabilitation After Ocular Trauma

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Rehab Goals & Assessment - Charting Recovery

Core Rehabilitation Goals:

  • Visual: Maximize residual vision; prescribe optical/non-optical aids.
  • Functional: Enhance independence in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) like reading, mobility.
  • Psychological: Address anxiety, depression; foster coping strategies.
  • Vocational: Facilitate return to work or explore new vocational pathways.
  • Team Approach: Involves Ophthalmologist, Optometrist, Low Vision Therapist, Counsellor, Occupational Therapist (OT).

Comprehensive Assessment Battery:

  • Ophthalmic Examination:
    • Visual Acuity (VA): Best-corrected, near, distance.
    • Intraocular Pressure (IOP) measurement.
    • Slit-lamp biomicroscopy: Detailed anterior segment evaluation.
    • Fundoscopy: Posterior segment, optic nerve head status.
    • Visual Field testing (Perimetry): e.g., Humphrey, Goldmann.
    • Electrophysiology (if needed): ERG for retinal function, VEP for optic pathway integrity.
  • Functional Vision Assessment: Evaluate performance of vision-dependent tasks.
  • Quality of Life (QoL) Scales: e.g., NEI VFQ-25 to gauge patient-reported outcomes.

Patient undergoing visual field test

⭐ Early referral for low vision aids (LVAs) and vision rehabilitation services significantly improves outcomes and QoL after ocular trauma, even with moderate vision loss.

Visual Function Restoration - Sight Savers

  • Low Vision Aids (LVAs): For visual acuity (VA) <6/18 to 3/60 (WHO criteria).
    • Optical LVAs:
      • Magnifiers (hand-held, stand, spectacle): For near vision.
      • Telescopes (hand-held, spectacle): For distance vision.

        ⭐ Telescopic LVAs are prescribed for distance vision enhancement.

    • Non-Optical LVAs:
      • Lighting: Enhanced illumination, glare control.
      • Large print materials, high-contrast objects.
      • Electronic aids (e.g., CCTV, screen readers).
  • Management of Specific Visual Impairments:
    • Diplopia: Management 📌 P.O.S. - Prisms, Occlusion, Surgery.
      • Prisms (e.g., Fresnel, ground-in).
      • Occlusion (e.g., patching one eye).
      • Surgical correction (for stable deviation).
    • Photophobia:
      • Tinted lenses (e.g., FL-41 tints, photochromic).
      • Broad-brimmed hats.
    • Visual Field Defects (e.g., hemianopia):
      • Scanning techniques (systematic head/eye movements).
      • Prisms (e.g., Peli prisms for field expansion). Adjustable Magnification Low Vision Glasses
  • Vision Therapy/Orthoptics:
    • Addresses binocular vision anomalies (e.g., convergence insufficiency, suppression).
    • Improves accommodative dysfunction.
    • Exercises to enhance eye teaming, focusing, and visual tracking.

Beyond Vision - Holistic Comeback

  • Psychosocial Support: Crucial for managing emotional and psychological sequelae.
    • Counseling: Addresses trauma-induced anxiety, depression, body image concerns, and PTSD.
    • Support groups: Offer invaluable peer understanding, shared experiences, and coping strategies.
  • Vocational Rehabilitation: Facilitates successful reintegration into the workforce and daily life.
    • Job modification: Adapting specific tasks or the overall work environment.
    • Retraining: Acquiring new, relevant skills for suitable alternative employment.
    • Assistive technology: Includes low vision aids, screen readers, and voice-activated software.
  • Cosmetic Rehabilitation: Aims to restore facial aesthetics, symmetry, and patient confidence.
    • Ocular prosthetics: Custom-fitted artificial eyes provide optimal cosmesis and motility.
      • Indications for enucleation/evisceration: Severe irreparable trauma, blind painful eye, prevention of sympathetic ophthalmia, select intraocular malignancies.
    • Anaplastology: Utilized for extensive orbital or periorbital tissue defects.

    ⭐ Custom ocular prostheses offer superior motility and cosmesis compared to stock shells.

  • Patient Education: Essential for promoting long-term adaptation, self-efficacy, and care.
    • Detailed instruction on self-care, prosthesis handling, insertion/removal, and socket hygiene.
    • Stress critical importance of consistent long-term follow-up appointments for monitoring.

High‑Yield Points - ⚡ Biggest Takeaways

  • Early, comprehensive management is critical for visual outcome post-trauma.
  • Visual rehabilitation aims to maximize residual vision with appropriate aids.
  • Key Low Vision Aids (LVAs): magnifiers, telescopes, electronic aids.
  • Occupational therapy facilitates ADL adaptation and vocational training.
  • Psychological support is essential for coping with vision loss and trauma.
  • Custom ocular prostheses provide cosmesis and socket health in anophthalmia.
  • Regular, long-term follow-up detects late complications and guides ongoing care.

Practice Questions: Rehabilitation After Ocular Trauma

Test your understanding with these related questions

A case of injury to right brow due to a fall from scooter presents with sudden loss of vision in the right eye. The pupil shows absent direct reflex but a normal consensual pupillary reflex is present. The fundus is normal. The treatment of choice is:

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Flashcards: Rehabilitation After Ocular Trauma

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Restricted ocular movements, due to entrapment of _____ muscle may occur with zygoma # and may cause diplopia

TAP TO REVEAL ANSWER

Restricted ocular movements, due to entrapment of _____ muscle may occur with zygoma # and may cause diplopia

inferior rectus

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